This Was The Original Name Of Kendrick Lamar’s “Duckworth” Track

The closing track off Kendrick Lamar’s DAMN. album wasn’t always called “Duckworth”.

Remember the final song on Kendrick Lamar’s Grammy nominated epic, DAMN.? In an interview with 9th Wonder on Rap Radar, Brian “B-Dot” Miller dug into the history of the “Duckworth” and its creation. The North Carolina producer and fellow Grammy nominee for Laila’s Wisdom revealed that the original title for “Duckworth” was “Life Is Like a Box of Chicken,” which is a more obvious reference of what happened between Kung-Fu Kenny’s father and TDE founder Anthony “Top Dawg” Tiffith.

Without spoiling the story, Kendrick’s dad, Ducky, and Top, had a run-in that had it gone left, might’ve resulted in us never hearing one of the greatest rap storytellers the world has ever known. Eagle-eyed Kendrick die-hard day ones might also recognize “Life Is Like a Box of Chicken” from his 2015 short film, God is Gangsta. The title was one of the many subliminal messages included in the project.

“It was a crazy day in Los Angeles,” 9th recalled at the near six-minute mark in the video. “At 1 o’clock that day we went to see Snoop [Dogg]. At 6 o’clock that day we went to [Dr.] Dre’s studio […] We saw Kendrick at like 11 o’clock, and I’m like, ‘That’s the West Coast.’” 9th would go on to provide the TDE superstar with 20 beats that day, while keeping in touch with Dave Free they would iron out what would become “Duckworth”.

“[Free] hit me like, ‘Hey man, I need the samples for these two songs, and I’m like thinking, ‘Oh I got two beats that made it. Then he hit me back and said, ‘There’s a third beat I need the sample information on.’ And I’m like, ‘Oh, OK, I got three.’”

9th said he assumed the beats were for three separate cuts, but when Free clarified that it was for one song, 9th’s recollection of what Free told him afterwards signified that Kendrick is one of the icons of our new generation. “[Free] is like, ‘Yeah, man, it’s the greatest story Kendrick has ever told.” He should’ve said, “to date,” because there will be more imaginative creations from the good kid coming for years ahead.